Image via Complex Original
Oliver Heldens' has had a remarkable year. For a producer who was relatively unknown this time last year, he's ascended up the EDM ranks pretty quickly for his sound, which helped push the new phase of "deep house," even though it's not solely deep house. That sounds confusing, but when you listen to it, you can tell immediately that it's so much more than one particular style of house. The Dutch producer has already remixed Martin Garrix and Robin Thicke, has had huge singles like "Gecko" get released on Tiesto's Musical Freedom imprint, and is currently signed to Spinnin'. There's a huge new version of "Koala" entitled "Last All Night (Koala)" that just recently got released on Pete Tong's FFRR imprint, so it made sense that we got to know Oliver a bit better, before his stock rises even higher come 2015. Here are 10 things you didn't know about Oliver Heldens.
He says that he's always hungry
Oliver says that while he doesn't have a favorite snack, he "really like[s] Chinese / Asian food. I only had a few stop overs when touring, so I'm really excited for my upcoming Asia tour in May, mainly for the experience and reaching out to new fans, but a part of me is really excited because I’ve heard the food is amazing."
He was a chess player when he was younger
Oliver says he has a room full of awards, but unfortunately he doesn't play chess anymore.
If he wasn’t a DJ/Producer he’d probably be an architect
Oliver says he likes to create things.
He has a "thing" for animals
Why else would he be all about naming tracks "Gecko" and "Koala?" Oliver does mention that he has a guinea pig, but with all of traveling, his mom is now taking care of it.
He says he'd bring his first date to a zoo
Oliver has two brothers and one sister
Oliver says that he tries to bring his family to shows. "I like it to have my family around me. Official both myself and myself aren’t legally allowed in the clubs i perform. so my brother thinks it’s very cool to join me."
He played field hockey as a youth
Oliver mentioned that while he was a good player, they hype from "Gecko" made it hard for him to attended weekly training sessions.
He doesn't call his sound "deep house"
He recently told LessThan3 that his sound is "a crossover between tech house, the deeper stuff, and EDM." Like we said, you can hear it in his music, but his sound is much bigger than what one would consider "deep house."
He has a collaboration forthcoming with Tiesto
Unfortunately we don't have info to divulge on this currently, although he says they got into the studio during the Amsterdam Dance Event. Tiesto's the man that discovered "Gecko," so we have a feeling this one will be huge.
There's a special "classics" episode of Heldeep Radio on the way
Keep it locked to the Heldeep Radio SoundCloud for this special edition, which Oliver says he's "adding some old inspiring house classics" to. In the mean time, check out the most recent episode:
